(Friday, January 14, 2004 - Pleasanton, CA) - The hammer didn't officially come down on PeopleSoft today, according to several employees whom we interviewed outside of company headquarters Friday afternoon. "We'll find out tomorrow," a weeping 30-something woman told us as she packed a heavy crate of personal belongings into the back of her SUV. Nearby, another woman carried a similar crate as she walked with her six-year-old son to their car.

Several youngish employees gathered near a shrine on PeopleSoft Parkway, one block from the headquarters entrance. The mood was surprisingly cheerful, although no one would provide their names "because they (management) told us not to give our names to the media," one young man explained. None of them knew whether they had been fired or not, repeating the refrain of "we'll find out tomorrow."

A middle-aged engineer we'll call "Anil" also said that he didn't know his fate, but said he wasn't overly concerned. "If they had done this two years ago, then most of us would be in a lot of trouble," he said. "But with the economy recovering as it is, I think that I and most of us will be able to find jobs" if fired.

CIO, CTO & Developer Resources

The shrine had buttons, brochures, company caps, and photographs from happier days, along with a small shroud with "RIP" stenciled into it and a hastily-drawn cardboard sign that said "Under New Management."

Public reports this afternoon stated that Oracle would lay off a total of 5,000 employees within the new combined organization, smaller than the 6,000 figure that had been thrown around the past several weeks. What's not known is how many of those jobs will be plucked from the sprawling PeopleSoft campus, which dominates the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton and is a major employer and economic driver in this region. In any case, the story was big enough to merit top billing on at least one of the major Bay Area TV stations in evidence at the scene.

By 5:15pm, the sun had set and traffic was building steadily on the nearby 580 freeway to mark the start of a three-day week-end. Parking lots at PeopleSoft (i.e., Oracle/PeopleSoft, as stated on the Web site at www.peoplesoft.com) headquarters and surrounding buildings were still half-full. One might presume that those left in the buildings at that hour intended to do what they could to keep their jobs through the week-end and beyond.

Photo: The shrine in Pleasanton, California had a small shroud with "RIP" stenciled into it. The shrine had a hastily-drawn cardboard sign that said "Under New Management" (below)

Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040) is Executive Director of the Tau Institute for Global ICT Research, with offices in Illinois and Manila. He is Conference Chair of @CloudExpo & @ThingsExpo, and Editor of SYS-CON Media's CloudComputing BigData & IoT Journals. He holds a BA from Knox College & conducted MBA studies at CSU-East Bay.

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.

Please wait while we process your request...

Your feedback has been submitted for approval.

Most Recent Comments

dm01/19/05 05:28:10 PM EST

As a former Oracle employee with a drastically different severance package, I am interested in legal options/opinions. Is this discrimination? Are there any precedences (HP/Compaq, etc.)? Is it normal for a company with the same ownership to treat people that differently? Any suggestions/opinions would be appreciated.

RIP PeopleSoft01/17/05 09:24:56 AM EST

Great photos...like being there. Very sad.

newpauper01/15/05 08:45:51 AM EST

I've been laid off three times in my life and each time came back stronger and with a better and more satisfying job and life. These words may be hard to swallow in the midst of a bleak outlook but I've found that a phrase from a song out of the musical, "Paint Your Wagon" sums it up:

"Ain't never seen a sight that weren't better looking back."

wrigley14200401/15/05 06:37:23 AM EST

who cares about the livlihoods of 5000 honest hard working americans?..certainly not ellison and his group..he'll probably outsource another 10,000 to india within the next 2 years....pretty soon nobody will be working here..maybe we will all become farmers again....imo

nazyoyo01/15/05 06:35:45 AM EST

Everybody seems to be shedding a little tear for Peoplesoft employees... what about Oracle employees? They are being laid-off too and I hear the severance package is not as good.

funsugarandspicefancier01/15/05 06:34:42 AM EST

Thanks Larry for taking a great company and throwing it away in only 15 days.

Too bad fed ex isn't showing up at your door today.

kollaborateordie01/15/05 05:59:07 AM EST

As far as I can tell, former JDE employees have not been RIFed in the US either. Larry knows a great product and people when he sees it, or else he might be staging it for wholesale to IBM or the likes.

giorgio_loukas01/15/05 05:54:09 AM EST

I am very happy for my ex colleagues in
Europe(JDE) who are not affected.They have been through enough over the years

ec2feed01/15/05 05:51:26 AM EST

I just want to say, my heart goes out to you Peoplesoft employees. I am an HP employee, and must say that a big merger is awful and I know how scared and sad you all are right now. My prayers are with all of you.

joepsft01/15/05 05:49:27 AM EST

Notifying the State of Plant Closures or Mass Layoffs

If you are an employer in California with 100 or more employees and are planning a mass layoff or closure, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act may apply to you.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Public Law 100-379, enacted August 4, 1988, requires employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days advance notice in the event of a plant closure or mass layoff.

Definition of Plant Closure and Mass Layoff:

Plant closure

A covered employer must give notice if an employment site (or one or more facilities or operating units, within an employment site) will be shut down, and the shutdown will result in an employment loss for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period. This does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months, or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for the employer.

Mass Layoff

A covered employer must give notice if there is a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33 percent of the employer's active workforce. This does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for the employer.

An IoT product’s log files speak volumes about what’s happening with your products in the field, pinpointing current and potential issues, and enabling you to predict failures and save millions of dollars in inventory. But until recently, no one knew how to listen.
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Dan Gettens, Chief Research Officer at OnProcess, discussed recent research by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and OnProcess Technology, where MIT created a new, breakthrough analytics model for ...

IoT is rapidly changing the way enterprises are using data to improve business decision-making. In order to derive business value, organizations must unlock insights from the data gathered and then act on these. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, and Peter Shashkin, Head of Development Department at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how one organization leveraged IoT, cloud technology and data analysis to improve customer experiences and effici...

Everyone knows that truly innovative companies learn as they go along, pushing boundaries in response to market changes and demands. What's more of a mystery is how to balance innovation on a fresh platform built from scratch with the legacy tech stack, product suite and customers that continue to serve as the business' foundation.
In his General Session at 19th Cloud Expo, Michael Chambliss, Head of Engineering at ReadyTalk, discussed why and how ReadyTalk diverted from healthy revenue and mor...

In this strange new world where more and more power is drawn from business technology, companies are effectively straddling two paths on the road to innovation and transformation into digital enterprises. The first path is the heritage trail – with “legacy” technology forming the background. Here, extant technologies are transformed by core IT teams to provide more API-driven approaches. Legacy systems can restrict companies that are transitioning into digital enterprises. To truly become a lead...

The 20th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location.
With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal ...

You have great SaaS business app ideas. You want to turn your idea quickly into a functional and engaging proof of concept. You need to be able to modify it to meet customers' needs, and you need to deliver a complete and secure SaaS application. How could you achieve all the above and yet avoid unforeseen IT requirements that add unnecessary cost and complexity? You also want your app to be responsive in any device at any time.
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Mark Allen, General Manager of...

The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to simplify and streamline our lives by automating routine tasks that distract us from our goals. This promise is based on the ubiquitous deployment of smart, connected devices that link everything from industrial control systems to automobiles to refrigerators. Unfortunately, comparatively few of the devices currently deployed have been developed with an eye toward security, and as the DDoS attacks of late October 2016 have demonstrated, this oversight can ...

As data explodes in quantity, importance and from new sources, the need for managing and protecting data residing across physical, virtual, and cloud environments grow with it. Managing data includes protecting it, indexing and classifying it for true, long-term management, compliance and E-Discovery. Commvault can ensure this with a single pane of glass solution – whether in a private cloud, a Service Provider delivered public cloud or a hybrid cloud environment – across the heterogeneous enter...

Bert Loomis was a visionary. This general session will highlight how Bert Loomis and people like him inspire us to build great things with small inventions. In their general session at 19th Cloud Expo, Harold Hannon, Architect at IBM Bluemix, and Michael O'Neill, Strategic Business Development at Nvidia, discussed the accelerating pace of AI development and how IBM Cloud and NVIDIA are partnering to bring AI capabilities to "every day," on-demand. They also reviewed two "free infrastructure" pr...

"Dice has been around for the last 20 years. We have been helping tech professionals find new jobs and career opportunities," explained Manish Dixit, VP of Product and Engineering at Dice, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

Extracting business value from Internet of Things (IoT) data doesn’t happen overnight. There are several requirements that must be satisfied, including IoT device enablement, data analysis, real-time detection of complex events and automated orchestration of actions. Unfortunately, too many companies fall short in achieving their business goals by implementing incomplete solutions or not focusing on tangible use cases.
In his general session at @ThingsExpo, Dave McCarthy, Director of Products...

"ReadyTalk is an audio and web video conferencing provider. We've really come to embrace WebRTC as the platform for our future of technology," explained Dan Cunningham, CTO of ReadyTalk, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at WebRTC Summit at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

The many IoT deployments around the world are busy integrating smart devices and sensors into their enterprise IT infrastructures. Yet all of this technology – and there are an amazing number of choices – is of no use without the software to gather, communicate, and analyze the new data flows. Without software, there is no IT.
In this power panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, Dave McCarthy, Director of Products at Bsquare Corporation; Alan Williamson, Principal...

Businesses and business units of all sizes can benefit from cloud computing, but many don't want the cost, performance and security concerns of public cloud nor the complexity of building their own private clouds. Today, some cloud vendors are using artificial intelligence (AI) to simplify cloud deployment and management. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Ajay Gulati, Co-founder and CEO of ZeroStack, will discuss how AI can simplify cloud operations. He will cover the following topics: why clou...

Video experiences should be unique and exciting! But that doesn’t mean you need to patch all the pieces yourself.
Users demand rich and engaging experiences and new ways to connect with you. But creating robust video applications at scale can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Zohar Babin, Vice President of Platform, Ecosystem and Community at Kaltura, discussed how VPaaS enables you to move fast, creating scalable video experiences that reach your aud...

WebRTC is the future of browser-to-browser communications, and continues to make inroads into the traditional, difficult, plug-in web communications world. The 6th WebRTC Summit continues our tradition of delivering the latest and greatest presentations within the world of WebRTC. Topics include voice calling, video chat, P2P file sharing, and use cases that have already leveraged the power and convenience of WebRTC.

"At ROHA we develop an app called Catcha. It was developed after we spent a year meeting with, talking to, interacting with senior citizens watching them use their smartphones and talking to them about how they use their smartphones so we could get to know their smartphone behavior," explained Dave Woods, Chief Innovation Officer at ROHA, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

In his keynote at 18th Cloud Expo, Andrew Keys, Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise, provided an overview of the evolution of the Internet and the Database and the future of their combination – the Blockchain.
Andrew Keys is Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise. He comes to ConsenSys Enterprise with capital markets, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was responsible for the creation and distribution of life sett...

20th Cloud Expo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy.

DevOps is being widely accepted (if not fully adopted) as essential in enterprise IT. But as Enterprise DevOps gains maturity, expands scope, and increases velocity, the need for data-driven decisions across teams becomes more acute. DevOps teams in any modern business must wrangle the ‘digital exhaust’ from the delivery toolchain, "pervasive" and "cognitive" computing, APIs and services, mobile devices and applications, the Internet of Things, and now even blockchain.
In this power panel at @...

The 20th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Containers, Microservices and WebRTC to one location.
With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal today!

We've come across a lot of talk about "cloud-native" apps lately. (They even have their own foundation!) Developers build these apps specifically to run on a cloud-based infrastructure, with the kind of user interface we all expect from our apps now. Cloud-native applications are scalable, usable and flexible, usually packaged using containers.
It's a step further in the cloud computing journey, and a step away from the way we used to conceive of apps. Application development happened for many years inside an IT bubble, with a long development and deployment lifecycle. They were used only i...

Information self-service is undoubtedly one of the main drivers of Modern Data Management. From “data services marketplaces” to “self-service Big Data analytics,” one of the objectives of most data-related initiatives today is to provide business professionals with new ways to solve their information needs with the goals of achieving self-reliance and minimizing the IT bottleneck. However, is it realistic to expect business users to assume this job?
Studies [1] report that more than 60 percent of companies grade their experience with self-service initiatives as “average” or lower, with nearl...

The IoT continued its toddler-like growth and stumbles in 2016. Here are five trends to look for in 2017 as the IoT enters its adolescence and how to benefit from them.
1. Ecosystems begin to determine winners and losers
Previously these were nice in-the-future concerns; now they will really count. Filling out a whole product value proposition through partnerships has repeatedly proven its importance across B2B and enterprise software sectors. In the IoT, they will be even more critical.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise advanced across several fronts at HPE Discover 2016 in London, making inroads into hybrid IT, Internet of Things, and on to the latest advances in memory-based computer architecture.
A leaner, more streamlined Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) advanced across several fronts at HPE Discover 2016 in London, making inroads into hybrid IT, Internet of Things (IoT), and on to the latest advances in memory-based computer architecture. All the innovations are designed to help customers address the age of digital disruption with speed, agility, and efficiency.

In his keynote at 18th Cloud Expo, Andrew Keys, Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise, provided an overview of the evolution of the Internet and the Database and the future of their combination – the Blockchain.
Andrew Keys is Co-Founder of ConsenSys Enterprise. He comes to ConsenSys Enterprise with capital markets, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was responsible for the creation and distribution of life settlement products to hedge funds and investment banks. After, he co-founded a revenue cycle management...

Okay, let me get this out there: I find the term “Citizen Data Scientist” confusing. Gartner defines a “citizen data scientist as “a person who creates or generates models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics but whose primary job function is outside of the field of statistics and analytics.” While we teach business users to “think like a data scientist” in their ability to identify those variables and metrics that might be better predictors of performance, I do not expect that the business stakeholders are going to be able to create and generate analytic models. I do not believe...

We have been seeing a sudden rise in the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL). It looks like the long “AI winter” is finally over. It is interesting to note that AI was mentioned by Alan Turing in a paper he wrote back in 1950 to suggest that there is possibility to build machines with true intelligence. Then in 1956, John McCarthy organized a conference at Dartmounth and coined the phrase Artificial Intelligence. Much of the next three decades did not see much activity and hence the phrase “AI Winter” was coined. Around 1997, IBM’s Deep Blu...

Cyberattacks are relentless. The pace of attacks shows no sign of slowing, and organizations understand that 100 percent prevention of attacks is not possible. Traditional prevention and detection techniques are falling short, and security professionals are scrambling for new paradigms that can more effectively detect attacks and mitigate the growing levels of damage. In this climate of confusion, deception-based solutions offer a viable and proven way to stop attackers in their tracks. Why? Because instead of sitting back and waiting to be the victim, detection technologies let organizations ...

My daughter called with a frantic message. She was driving my car (why she was driving my car when she has her own is the subject for another time) and a warning message appeared on the car console: “Engine overheated! Stop engine and allow to cool down” (see Figure 1).
Fortunately, my daughter was nearly home, so she got the car home, shut it down and called me immediately (I was on the road somewhere…Washington DC, Philadelphia, Knoxville, Chicago, Toronto…I don’t even remember where anymore). I called my trusty mechanic (Chuck) and he was able to work my car into the schedule when I got ba...

With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, is co-located with 20th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most profound change in personal and enterp...

Almost a year ago, I wrote these words, "Technology has reached the tipping point for me, it moved from a help to a hindrance." The plethora of adrenaline- and endorphin-inducing mobile apps, 24x7 news, notifications, alerts and updates, drip fed my brain and hindered my "deep work and deep thoughts." In Cal Newport's new book titled, Deep Work he posits that most knowledge workers need concentration and substantial time, dedicated and uninterrupted, to produce their best work. He argues that a lot of technologies and open office layouts today inhibit creativity, "deep work" and "deep thoughts...

Predictions can be enlightening as we round out the end of the year, and industry analysts covering the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have begun forecasting what to expect in 2017. In the ever changing digital business landscape, companies need to keep a pulse on the technology and regulatory environments to have direction on where to focus their efforts. Over the past few years, IIoT has taken on the shared title of industry 4.0, as new ways of connecting businesses and consumers impact systems infrastructures and technology integrations across many, if not all. business lines.

The holiday season is nearly upon us (I’ve already heard Christmas songs being played…really?) and retailers are usually the big winners during the holiday season. However, leading retailers are already thinking beyond the current holiday season, and not just from marketing and merchandising perspectives. These leading retailers are considering how this holiday season – and the resulting wealth of customer, product and operational data – can be converted into new analytic insights that can be used to optimize key business processes, uncover new monetization opportunities and create a more comp...

The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, provided an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data professionals, as experts estimate that “as-a-service” cloud sourcing will increase from today’s 15% to 35% by 20...

Cloud computing budgets worldwide are reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and no organization can survive long without some sort of cloud migration strategy. Each month brings new announcements, use cases, and success stories.